15 Dec 2010

Some history on our holy Order by Fr Benedict Zimmerman OCD

Origin

The date of the foundation of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been under discussion from the fourteenth century to the present day, the order claiming for its founders the prophets Elias and Eliseus, whereas modern historians, beginning with Baronius, deny its existence previous to the second half of the twelfth century. As early as the times of the Prophet Samuel there existed in the Holy Land a body of men called Sons of the Prophets, who in many respects resembled religious institutes of later times. They led a kind of community life, and, though not belonging to the Tribe of Levi, dedicated themselves to the service of God; above all they owed obedience to certain superiors, the most famous of whom were Elias and his successor Eliseus, both connected with Carmel, the former by his encounter with the prophets of Baal, the latter by prolonged residence on the holy mountain. With the downfall of the Kingdom of Israel the Sons of the Prophets disappear from history. In the third or fourth century of the Christian Era Carmel was a place of pilgrimage, as is proved by numerous Greek inscriptions on the walls of the School of the Prophets: "Remember Julianus, remember Germanicus", etc. Several of the Fathers, notably John Chrystostom, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Jerome, represent Elias and Eliseus as the models of religious perfection and the patrons of hermits and monks. These undeniable facts have opened the way to certain conjectures. As St. John the Baptist spent nearly the whole of his life in the desert, where he gathered around him a number of disciples, and as Christ said he was endowed with the spirit and virtue of Elias, some authors think that he revived the institute of the Sons of the Prophets.

The glowing descriptions given by Pliny, Flavius Josephus, and Philo, of the manner of life of the Essenes and Therapeutes convinced others that these sects belonged to the same corporation; unfortunately their orthodoxy is open to serious doubts. Tacitus mentions a sanctuary on Carmel, consisting "neither of a temple, nor an idol, but merely an altar for Divine worship"; whatever its origin may have been, it certainly was at the time of Vespasian in the hands of a pagan priest, Basilides. Pythagoras (500 B.C.) is represented by Jamblichus (A.D. 300) as having spent some time in silent prayer in a similar sanctuary on Carmel, a testimony of greater force for the time of Jamblichus himself than for that of Pythagoras. Nicephorus Callistus (A.D. 1300) relates that the Empress Helena built a church in honour of St. Elias on the slopes of a certain mountain. This evidence is, however, inadmissible, inasmuch as Eusebius is witness to the fact that she built only two churches in the Holy Land, at Bethlehem and at Jerusalem, not twenty, as Nicephorus says; moreover the words of this author show clearly that he had in view the Greek monastery of Mar Elias, overhanging the Jordan valley, and not Carmel as some authors think; Mar Elias, however, belongs to the sixth century. These and other misunderstood quotations have enfeebled rather than strengthened the tradition of the order, which holds that from the days of the great Prophets there has been, if not an uninterrupted, at least a moral succession of hermits on Carmel, first under the Old Dispensation, afterwards in the full light of Christianity, until at the time of the Crusades these hermits became organized after the fashion of the Western orders. This tradition is officially laid down in the constitutions of the order, is mentioned in many papal Bulls, as well as in the Liturgy of the Church, and is still held by many members of the order.

The silence of Palestine pilgrims previous to A.D. 1150, of chroniclers, of early documents, in one word the negative evidence of history has induced modern historians to disregard the claims of the order, and to place its foundation in or about the year 1155 when it is first spoken of in documents of undoubted authenticity. Even the evidence of the order itself was not always very explicit. A notice written between 1247 and 1274 (Mon. Hist. Carmelit., 1, 20, 267) states in general terms that "from the days of Elias and Eliseus the holy fathers of the Old and the New Dispensation dwelt on Mount Carmel, and that their successors after the Incarnation built there a chapel in honour of Our Lady, for which reason they were called in papal Bulls "Friars of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel". The General Chapter of 1287 (unedited) speaks of the order as of a plantation of recent growth (plantatio novella). More definite are some writings of about the same time. A letter "On the progress of his Order" ascribed to St. Cyril of Constantinople, but written by a Latin (probably French) author about the year 1230, and the book "On the Institution of the First Monks" connect the order with the Prophets of the Old Law. This latter work, mentioned for the first time in 1342, was published in 1370 and became known in England half a century later. It purports to be written by John, the forty-fourth (more accurately the forty-second) Bishop of Jerusalem (A.D. 400). However, as Gennadius and other ancient bibliographers do not mention it among the writings of John, and as the author was clearly a Latin, since his entire argument is based upon certain texts of the Vulgate differing widely from the corresponding passages of the Septuagint, and as he in many ways proves his entire ignorance of the Greek language, and, moreover, quotes or alludes to writers of the twelfth century, he cannot have lived earlier than the middle of the thirteenth. A third author is sometimes mentioned, Joseph, a Deacon of Antioch, whom Possevin assigns to about A.D. 130. His work is lost but its very title, "Speculum perfectæ militæ primitivæ ecclesiæ", proves that he cannot have belonged to the Apostolic Fathers, as indeed he is entirely unknown to patristic literature. His name is not mentioned before the fourteenth century and in all probability he did not live much earlier.

The tradition of the order, while admitted by many of the medieval Schoolmen, was contested by not a few authors. Hence the Carmelite historians neglected almost completely the history of their own times, spending all their energy on controversial writings, as is evident in the works of John Baconthorpe, John of Chimeneto, John of Hildesheim, Bernard Olerius, and many others. In 1374 a disputation was held before the University of Cambridge between the Dominican John Stokes and the Carmelite John of Horneby; the latter, whose arguments were chiefly taken from canon law, not from history, was declared victorious and the members of the university were forbidden to question the antiquity of the Carmelite Order. Towards the end of the fifteenth century this was again ably defended by Trithemius (or whoever wrote under his name), Bostius, Palæonydorus, and many others who with a great display of learning strove to strengthen their thesis, filling in the gaps in the history of the order by claiming for it numerous ancient saints. Sts. Eliseus and Cyril of Alexandria (1399), Basil (1411), Hilarion (1490), and Elias (in some places c. 1480, in the whole order from 1551) had already been placed on the Carmelite calendar; the chapter of 1564 added many more, some of whom were dropped out twenty years later on the occasion of a revision of the Liturgy, but were reintroduced in 1609 when Cardinal Bellarmine acted as reviser of Carmelite legends. He, too, approved with certain reservations the legend of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16 July, which had been instituted between 1376 and 1386 in commemoration of the approbation of the rule by Honorius III; it now (1609) became the "Scapular feast", was declared the principal feast of the order, and was extended to the whole Church in 1726. The tendency of claiming for the order saints and other renowned persons of Christian and even classical antiquity came to a climax in the "Paradisus Carmelitici decoris" by M.A. Alegre de Casanate, published in 1639, condemned by the Sorbonne in 1642, and placed on the Roman Index in 1649. Much that is uncritical may also be found in the annals of the order by J.-B. de Lezana (1645-56) and in "Decor Carmeli" by Philip of the Blessed Trinity (1665). On the publication, in 1668, of the third volume of March of the Bollandists, in which Daniel Papebroch asserted that the Carmelite Order was founded in 1155 by St. Berthold, there arose a literary war of thirty years' duration and almost unequaled violence. The Holy See, appealed to by both sides, declined to place the Bollandists on the Roman Index, although they had been put on the Spanish Index, but imposed silence on both parties (1698). On the other hand it permitted the erection of a statue of St. Elias in the Vatican Basilica among the founders of orders (1725), towards the cost of which (4064 scudi or $3942) each section of the order contributed one fourth part. At the present time the question of the antiquity of the Carmelite Order has hardly more than academical interest.

7 Dec 2010

Carmelite Spirituality - Part 5 by Fr Paul Marie of the Cross OCD

Dependence on Jesus Christ.

From Christ, the Carmelite, henceforth, is not to look away; in dependence on Him the Carmelite intends to live. Carmel was searching for God and union with God. Then came the Son of God, God Himself. Turning towards Him, the Carmelite did no more than continue along the path that had always been his. In virtue of an essential and profound continuity Carmel, which is biblical and remains biblical, becomes evangelical.

In fact, born under the Old Testament, formed by the divine Word, Carmel awaits its fulfillment. With Elias and the prophets it watches for "Him who is to come"; it can look at nothing else. It finds that, like the prophets, its natural study is to desire the coming of the Savior, to hasten His arrival.

Filled with the preparation which abounds in the Sacred Books, Carmel turns toward Christ with the certitude of finding in Him all it seeks.

It seeks God as an object of knowledge and love; where then could it better find and embrace Him than in His Son who was made flesh and given to us? Carmel awaits the fulfillment of the divine Word. Now Saint John of the Cross tells us that "God has spoken but one Word and that is His Son".

Carmel has received as a legacy the awareness of the greatness of God, of the nothingness of the creature, and of its divine vocation. How then could it not place all its hope in a Mediator and Savior, all its hope in Christ suffering and dying for us through love?

Nevertheless, considered relatively, Christ's role in the Rule is lightly stressed. Here we are in the presence of one of Carmel's mysteries. It is not easy to grasp: a hidden, half-formulated spiritual reality which is at the same time truly central and profoundly operative.

Beyond any doubt there are other schools of spirituality in which Christ's role is more prominent. He is the model, the exemplar, and His life must be imitated. The spirituality of a contemplative order could never be like that. If it is a question of always looking at Christ, it is also and even more a question of uniting one's self to Him and living by Him. Christ who is the way toward the Father, the author and finisher of our faith, becomes by this fact, the milieu in which contemplation develops, the path it uses. So it would seem the Carmel's Rule is on Christ and that
Carmelite prayer develops in the depths of the life Christ communicates to the soul.

No doubt Carmel is not unmindful of the need of some kind of a method but it seems that those who had asked for the Rule had already made some progress in spiritual life. This is because they had been leading for a long time a solitary, interior and mortified life, and they possessed "a pure heart and a good conscience". Therefore the Rule is more interested in highlighting what must be characteristic of contemplative life: perpetual prayer to which the hermits must dedicate themselves, "these interminable vigils of prayer must make (religious) the Lord's intimate
friends, and love becomes a state of soul".

The Rule does not define the nature of the contemplation toward which it is oriented but it is easy to discover it in "L'institution des premiers moines." This document was long held in the same reverence as the primitive Rule and allows us to understand that this perpetual prayer must make it possible for the Carmelite "in some way to taste in his heart and to experience in his soul the strength of the divine presence and the sweetness of heavenly glory: in other words to drink from the torrent of divine pleasure".

Clearly this is a reference to a mystical experience of God. This is, in fact, the end toward which the Order is oriented. Of course not all reach the goal. But Christ is for all, at least, the path that leads to the goal. And all ought to live "in dependence on Jesus Christ", all ought "to remain in their cells... meditating day and night the Law of the Lord and watching in prayer".

1 Oct 2010

St Pius X on our Holy Mother St Teresa II

Excerpts from the Apostolic Letter of Pope St Pius X on St Teresa

In reward for her faith it was granted to her, as far as it is possible to the human mind in this mortal life, both to penetrate the secrets of God, even the profoundest and those most removed from human perception and intelligence, and to interpret and explain them with ease. And in this respect it seemed to those whom she chose as her spiritual directors that she might reasonably be compared to Moses, who was privileged to enjoy the presence and conversation to God.

Who has not heard how ardently she longed to share this gift of faith with those who had it not? While still only a child, she conceived the design and formed plans for crossing to Africa, to give to those savage peoples ‘the Christ or her blood’ (Brev. hymn). Being thwarted in her intention, she wept for the pitiable condition of pagans and heretics all her life long, and was filled with holy envy of those who led men back from the darkness of error and sin to the light of truth and holiness. Hindered by her sex and condition of life from taking part in apostolic labour, she put on the spirit of Elias and undertook what is called the apostleship of prayer and penance. To this end, since she was unable to join in the work of spreading the faith, she set herself to practise the evangelical counsels with all her might, convinced that the more she advanced in holiness the more acceptable to God would be her prayers for the spread of Christianity and the salvation of souls. Finally, her desire of defending Christian doctrine and making it known may be gathered from the importance which she attached to the catechism; there was no book which she wished her daughters to take up more frequently or read more diligently.

Another of the chief glories of Teresa, which deserves particular mention because it is so opposed to the spirit of the age, was her singular love for her Lord Jesus. It is regrettable that men have blotted out of memory the answer which Christ gave to His apostles when they enquired the way that would lead them to God; Christ replied; ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me’. (John 14:6) How completely this was forgotten by those who were called Quietists, and by some innovators of that sect! But it was deeply impressed on the mind and soul of this holy virgin. Therefore, whatever benefits she received from God, she attributed them to Christ; whatever good she sought from God, she sought it from Christ. She made Christ her sole master by whom to regulate her daily actions her sole guide to lead her up the heights of divine contemplation. All who entertained the like feelings towards Christ, she called most happy; all others she regarded as most wretched, because of their want of faith. And her manner of life accorded well with her sentiments; for the one object of her endeavours was to order her life after the example of Jesus Christ, and by imitating him to engrave his image more and more on her soul so that she might truly say with the Apostle: ‘To me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21)

Having such a master for her rule of life, she learned promptly to forsake the things of the earth, and with earnestness to purify her soul from even slight blemishes and adorn it with virtue. Thus she steadily progressed until she was so fashioned after the image of her Lord that whatever hardships, cares, and sorrows he suffered while on earth, and whatever joys and consolations were his, all these Teresa likewise experienced by the force of that love which so intimately united her to him. And since it is an effect of charity that, while it inflames the soul, it at the same time quickens and enlightens the mind, Teresa was so far favoured by God that she not only beheld the abundant and most perfect virtues of the Christ Man, but she was admitted by contemplation to the inmost mysteries of the Word of God; still more, she was made worthy to have disclosed to her not a few of the secrets of the adorable Trinity, and to be addressed by the Son of God with the words: ‘Henceforth thou shalt, like a true spouse, be zealous for my honour; for now I am all thine, and thou art all mine.’

14 Sept 2010

St Pius X on our Holy Mother St Teresa

Excerpts from the Apostolic Letter of Pope St Pius X on St Teresa

The Lord so filled her with the spirit of wisdom and intellect and with the treasures of His grace, that, as a star in the firmament, her splendour will shine in the house of God for all eternity.
(Bull of Canonisation)

Thus spoke Pope Gregory XV about St Teresa of Avila. And how truthfully! For this saintly woman has been of so much service in instructing the faithful in the way of salvation that she would seem to be little, if at all, beneath those great Fathers and Doctors of the Church whom we have named.

It is remarkable how she was gifted by nature for her heavenly office of instructress in the ways of virtue. Her marvellously keen intellect, her noble and generous soul, her sure judgement, her prudence in dealing with people and in business affairs, no less than her sweet disposition and pleasant manner, won for her the affections of everyone. But her natural endowments were altogether eclipsed by her supernatural gifts. Although among her contemporaries there were many persons distinguished for their holiness of life and knowledge of things divine – so that period may justly be called the golden age of Catholic Spain - it must be admitted that Teresa combined in herself the virtues and gifts of all that pious band whom she numbered among her intimate friends and advisers.

It would take long, and we do not intend, to describe the many excellences of this illustrious woman. But we judge it most opportune to set before you, beloved children, some considerations about her virtues – they will be to you a source of profitable meditations, and, through you, a source of instruction to Christians.

In the first place, seeing that those things which exceed the compass of the human reason and lie outside the narrow circle of nature, are nowadays regarded lightly by so many, or even contemptuously thrust aside as worthless, it will be useful to investigate the strong faith of Teresa. Since faith is the substance of things to be hoped for,’ that is, the root (as it were) of the divine and heavenly life in man, and the foundation on which the whole fabric of Christian perfection is built, it wins our admiration to see to what an extent Teresa lived by faith and was guided by it alone of her counsels, her words, her deeds. None showed more loyal obedience to the Church, the mistress of truth; none clung to its doctrines more unswervingly. Not only was she unshaken by the wiles of heretics and the deceits of the devil, but she stated in writing that if an angel or a voice from heaven should propose anything to her belief which was not conformable to the doctrine of the Church, she would never in any way believe it. And, further, we know that she was ready to face a thousand deaths, if need be, in defence of the faith. To her nothing was clearer or more evident that the truth of the Christian dogmas; indeed, the more inscrutable they were to human intelligence, the more whole-heartedly did she assent to them.

Therefore, when she approached the adorable sacrament, her mind seemed absorbed as if all her affections were rapt in contemplation of this great mystery. As the same Pope Gregory, our predecessor, says:
She beheld so clearly in the Blessed Eucharist, with the eyes of her mind, the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that she asserted that she was not in the least envious of those who beheld our Lord with the eyes of the body (Bull of Canonisation).

26 Aug 2010

Carmelite Spirituality - Part 4 by Fr Paul Marie of the Cross OCD

III. THE RULE AND ITS SPIRIT

Many centuries have to pass before we possess documents giving evidence of the presence of hermits on Mount Carmel. The first definite text goes back to 1177; it comes to us from the Greek monk John Phocas. Consequently exact information about the kind of life the solitaries led on the mountain of Elias cannot be obtained before this date.

But in 1209 the "Ermitains dou Carme" had been established near El Chader(which means "the school of the prophets"), beside Wadi-Ain-Es-Siah (which means "the fountain of Elias"). There it seems they had settled about 1150 and had followed a number of prescriptions belonging to the great monastic tradition. Now they asked Albert Avogadro, patriarch of Jerusalem, for a Rule which would permit them "to lead the form of religious life they had chosen so that they might live dependent upon Jesus Christ and serve Him faithfully with a pure heart and a good conscience".

In this way is established a spiritual continuity, between the "Ermitains dou Carme" and the "sons of the Prophets." It also offers proof of the fact that the Rule (which was soon to be that of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel) repudiated nothing of the past. By means of this Rule the monks living on Carmel were able to live the life of Elias, their father, in a Christian climate.

The New Testament fulfills the Old. In its turn the Rule of Carmel fulfills the School of the Prophets. The spirituality of Carmel has no difficulty in developing the basic elements drawn from its biblical origins within an evangelic life of perfection. Henceforth it is in the light of Jesus Christ and in dependence on Him, characteristics of the Rule from its very first lines, that its spirituality must be considered.

In fact it is to Christ that the Carmelite turns, offering Him prayer and love. And it is following Him that the Carmelite intends to walk "with a pure heart and a good conscience". Elias and those who followed him, had been in search of all that would
lead them to God and favor their meeting with Him: silence, solitude, desert, sense of the divine absolute, thirst for a direct and ardent contact with God in the heart of prayer. All these are for the Carmelite a path leading to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.


The Spirituality of the Rule.

Codifying a form of life spontaneously adopted by the hermits and informing us at the same time of the spiritual principles which guided them, a knowledge of this Rule is particularly precious. It enables us not only to discover the spirit of Carmel; it also gives new insights about those whom it binds. John of Saint-Samson was later to say: "Our primitive Rule is extremely basic and concise; it is more inwardly in regard to the spirit than outwardly in regard to expression".

It is always important to know the spirit in which the special ends of an order are to be sought, as well as the external works for which it was founded. Now the spirit is usually only one of the constituent elements of the order, one characteristic among many others. But, when an order has only a spiritual work, and no other end than to promote and sustain spiritual life, then the spirit is everything. The Rule of Carmel makes this clear in its preamble:
"It possesses the austere quality of great spiritual texts, the delicacy of things from above. It seems freed from all accidental detail of space as well as time. Rising above contingencies of matter it does not even stop to discuss questions about the organization of life. It is concerned with what is within. It seeks to waken divine powers slumbering in the contemplative soul. It is an invitation to live rather than a formula of life."

Is it possible to discover the spirit of an interior Rule if one does not possess an interior spirit? From the first, Carmel has insisted on this thirst for solitude and silence, this attraction for the desert as the best place for the divine meeting and for contemplation. The Rule takes this setting on the spiritual plane and makes it interior. The cell becomes the desert where the soul meets its God. Prayer becomes its conversation, its occupation "from morning to night", its "interior life". "Let each remain in his cell, or near it, meditating day and night on the Law of the Lord and watching in prayer."

Can the climate of this interior life, of this prayer, be discovered in the Rule? And can the Rule help us to describe the spirituality of Carmel? So sober is the text and so brief that the answer would at first seem to be, no. But considered from within, the text becomes much more revealing.

First of all, this sobriety itself appears eminently characteristic of the spirit which imposed it. It is an immediate introduction to a spirituality freed from the letter and utterly detached. The soul realizes that it must sell all to acquire the hidden treasure; that the kingdom of God alone matters: all else will be given to it over and above.

The sobriety is accompanied by a liberation from every spirit of individualism. Just as "the brother hermits who live on Mount Carmel" had recourse to the Church in the person of the patriarch of Jerusalem to obtain a Rule (and it will be remembered that when the greater reformer was on her death bed she gloried only in the fact that she was "a daughter of the Church"), so we see even now that the Rule requires that the Divine Office be recited according to the freely embraced " regulations laid down by the Sovereign Pontiffs and the customs approved by the Church".

What would men, fiercely devoted to spiritual liberty and accustomed to the breeze that comes from the desert or the sea, have to do with special forms and complicated methods? Instinctively they cling to what is most simple and ordinary because that is what makes it possible for them to give themselves in peace to "the one thing necessary".

Or course the principle of authority is affirmed, obedience is exacted, as well as silence, work, and the renunciation of all property. But this is to be done in the spirit to which the Gospel has accustomed us. All these are simple means to a single and uniquely necessary end: union with God.

Therefore the Rule is extremely simple and supple, not only because everything in it is ordered and directed to a single end but also because it does not hesitate to make use of all means, according to the gentle and flexible way of the spirit. We read in the Rule: "You may... inasmuch as the Prior shall deem it fitting... when that can be done conveniently... unless he be lawfully occupied in some other way... taking into consideration the age and the needs of each one... when that may be done
without trouble... unless obliged by sickness or the weakness of the body or by some other just cause to break the fast, because necessity knows no law...".

Nothing cut and dried, nothing narrowly literal but a simple and truly spiritual means of enabling souls spontaneously to advance in the path of the absolute. This is the spirit of the Gospel: "If thou wilt...".

The Rule is not unaware that a life of union with God rests on the foundation and generous practice of renunciation. But it asks for a renunciation which "without stifling the soul will enable it to be aware of its poverty so that at every instant it will turn toward God" of course, no progress is possible without effort and so there is a virile note in every part of the Rule. With Job it repeats: "Man's life on earth is a temptation" and "Those who live piously on earth will suffer persecution". "Therefore, set about with all zeal to clothe yourself with the armour of God". How could we fail to be reminded, when we see that the Rule lists all the armour recommended by Saint Paul, that it was made for "Crusaders", eager to place themselves at the service of their "Lord" Jesus Christ, Crusaders who were faithful to their ancestors: those great solitaries whose heroic struggles with the flesh and the devil tradition has recorded.

But the ascetic side of the Rule is tempered. Effort, renunciation, work, silence appear above all as means of stripping the soul of self, of freeing it so that unhampered it may advance more surely along the paths of divine union.

All that the Rule offers along this line comes straight from the Gospel, whose fragrance it retains. And all this is perfectly integrated with what it has received from its origins. This completes the Rule and adds depth, laying down a path through the desert where the soul can advance without getting lost. "If anyone wishes to be My disciple, let him renounce himself and follow Me".

At all times Carmel longed for God. The Rule points out the way. The way does not consist in a series of didactic lessons, or formulas, or techniques but the study of the living way which is Christ Jesus.

27 Jul 2010

Carmelite Spirituality - Part 3 by Fr Paul of the Cross OCD

Presence to God and zeal for souls.

No one will be surprised that in such a climate a connatural form of activity will spontaneously come into being, we mean prayer understood not so much as an exercise but as being present to God. This is altogether objective and interior, silent and sustained, detached and spiritual.

To prayer, as it is understood at Carmel, there are no limits; just as there are no limits to the quality of interior silence that it realizes and the links it fashions between man and his God. According to the measure of the soul's generosity and divine grace, the living God possesses and vivifies this solitude.

The exercise of prayer at Carmel is accompanied by a minimum of material conditions. Prayer involves no rigorously prescribed methods. For its development it requires the liberty and fidelity of a soul constantly visited and vivified by the spirit.

The Rule faithfully preserves this conception of life with God. The central obligation there laid down is "to meditate night and day on the Law of the Lord".

But the example of Elias, as well as an inner exigency, urges the hermits to realize within themselves and without, a spirit of silence and solitude eminently favorable to prayer and of which the desert is the most perfect expression.

The desert calls out to the spirit and the spirit calls out to the desert. Between the spirit of Carmel and the desert there is a living relation. Carmel's prayer is the desert in which the spirit dwells. But the desert also induces thirst, and prayer slakes the soul's thirst only to create new capacities for the infinite. "They that drink me shall yet thirst" (Eccl. 24: 29).

If it is not without meaning that the word of God was heard in a desert, it is equally significant that the possession of the Promised Land was conditioned by an exodus through that same desert. The soul, too, arrives at a meeting with God, in prayer, only at the price of an exodus painful to sense and spirit. But the soul then knows the infinite value of things divine and enjoys that liberty of the children of God which is characteristic of Carmelite spirituality.

This search for God in silence and solitude, this absence of imposed forms of prayer, a colloquy that is free and truly heart-to-heart in "the place of the espousals"--this is what the desert means, this is what has characterized Carmel from the beginning.

Life of God and desert: these timeless realities are never separated in the Old Testament or in the New. The desert of the soul is the very place of God's communication.

"The land that was desolate and impassable shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily" (Is. 35: 1). The depth in which the intuitions of the Carmelite soul are rooted may make them seem obscure. They are, nevertheless, astonishingly living and active. Consciously or not, the soul unceasingly returns there, to strive to live them fully and directly.

If no one is more convinced than the Carmelite of the riches and benefits of tradition, it is also true that no one is more faithfully and lovingly attached to it, yet no one else is more fully persuaded that it is necessary to live personally and to experience in direct contact the mystery of God. Tradition may indeed explain and give a love for the divine realities tasted in prayer: it cannot confer that supreme and incommunicable knowledge which is a fruit of divine wisdom. This comes
only to him who suffers God in his soul and in his life.

To remain living and active, the revelation of the divine transcendence and mercy ought to be renewed in each one of us. But as soon as the divine revelation crosses the threshold of our inner dwelling, there is a dawn and centuries vanish. The soul brought back to an absolute beginning watches the flowering of an eternal spring in his own soul. Is not "the verdant one" the meaning of Elias' name?

God Himself is there and speaks to the soul. And the soul making her own the words of the prophet, murmurs: "He liveth. He before whom I am".--"As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth. . . " (Cf. 3 Kgs. 1 7: 1, 4 Kgs. 2: 6).

The spirit of Carmel is none other than this power and life which spring from the divine word and seek to enter the soul; none other than this divine presence which is waiting to be received and communicated in a reciprocal gift. Today, no more than in the first days, can this word wait for tomorrows in which it will be accomplished.

If the impossible were to take place and the past were suddenly obliterated and tradition no longer existed, and the call of the living God were to sound for the first time in a soul, this call would carry with it the spirit of Carmel in all its freshness, its newness, its eternal richness.

Because it is of God and is pure reference to God, this spirit is distinguished by a clarity, a simplicity and a limpidity that are absolute. It has nothing to do with techniques. It fears more than all else material and spiritual encumbrances, multiplicity of means, devotions and spiritual exercises. It is God just as He is that it seeks and desires: God, for the mind all mystery, but for the soul light and
delicious knowledge.

The spirit of Carmel is a spirit of childhood, of original life, of newness, of immediate proximity to the divine outpouring. It drinks "of the torrent" without a shell; it does not kneel down but stands erect. It is born of God in all its profundity and passes into man renewing and in truth creating him. That is why this spirit is so immediate, so lacking any kind of transition, so without compromise; so bare, with the bare life of the Old Testament; that is why it is so essential. Strengthened by a power that transcends human means and traverses, without ignoring, what is relative, it discovers its goal and goes straight towards it with a
totalitarian exigency of unitive transformation. In short, it advances with a thirst for the absolute, which, once having been felt, can never more be slaked.

Without the least shadow of pessimism, the least disdain for the world, the Carmelite is deeply conscious of the infinite distance separating the created from the uncreated, God from His creature. Prayer gives him an understanding, better still, permits him to acquire a kind of experience of the absolute. It is also through prayer that the Carmelite, we read in the second chapter of the "Institution des premiers moines," "tastes in his heart and experiences in his soul the strength of the divine Presence and the sweetness of the glory from above".

This does not make the spirit of Carmel aloof toward what is created and toward those who live and grow in the earthy and the relative; this experience of God, on the contrary, is the origin of the most active zeal for souls which is characteristic of the action and person of the prophet Elias.

Carmel has never, in fact, separated the apostolic from the contemplative life in its father Elias "who was afire with zeal for the Yahweh of armies" (3 Kgs. 19: 10; 18) with fierce energy preserved in the people of Israel belief in the true God, and who has never ceased to serve as a model to the Order that claims him as founder. In 1275 Nicholas the Frenchman, the seventh prior general, recalled this in these words in his "Ignea Sagitta":
"Conscious of their own imperfection, the hermits of Mount Carmel remained long in solitude. But because they desired to be in some way useful to their neighbour, and lest on this point they incur guilt, at times, yet very rarely, they left their hermitage. And as it was with the scythe of contemplation that they harvested in the desert so now in preaching they will scatter the grain on the threshing floor and with open hands they will sow the seed."

So it came about that from the beginning Carmelite prayer has had an apostolic side and overflows with missionary fervor. Although these spiritual realities are part of the distant epochs of its pre-history, they have come down through the ages and will always be characteristic of Carmel. This inalienable treasure transmitted to us from
century to century by the hermits seems to us in its brilliance and marvellous freshness like an ancient jewel discovered in all its beauty in the desert sands.

29 Jun 2010

The Memorial to Mother Mary of Jesus



This is the memorial to Mother Mary of Jesus erected near the extern chapel entrance at Notting Hill Carmel. It speaks for itself.

16 Jun 2010

Way of Perfection for the Laity by Fr Kevin OCD

ON THE NATURE OF THE THIRD ORDER AND THE DUTIES 0F THE TERTIARIES

The Third Secular Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and of the Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus is an association of persons who, though living in the world, desire to aim at Christian perfection in the way most suitable to their state of life, according to the spirit and under the direction of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, under the protection of the august Queen of Carmel, and in imitation of the many saints whose virtues have adorned her venerable Order.

The Order is called the "Third Order," because there are three Orders, the First is that of the Friars, the Second the Nuns, both of which practice the Primitive Rule of Carmel. It is called the "Secular Order" because there is a Third Order of Carmel (or rather in any Third Orders) composed of those who embrace the religious state. They are spoken of as the Regular Third Order. The Third Orders, whether Regular or Secular, live according to a rule modeled on the Primitive Rule observed by the First and Second Orders. The title of the Third Order we are considering embraces the name of "The Holy Mother Saint Teresa of Jesus" to distinguish this Order as being "under the direction of the Order of Discalced Carmelites."

The whole Order of Carmel is under the title, patronage and "protection of the august Queen of Carmel." The Order of Carmel has a venerable tradition and cherished belief that St. Elias, its founder, dedicated the Order to the Virgin Mother of God whom he saw in prophetic vision prefigured in the little cloud rising from the sea (3 Kings, xviii. 4-4). There can be no doubt that the Order has ever been named after Mary, and ever claimed her special patronage. When we treat of the habit or scapular we shall show how Mary herself has recognised thIs claim. It is fitting that the Order should claim so high a patronage because as we shall repeat frequently in. the course of this explanation of the Rule, the Order of Carmel is in a special manner the guardian of the interior life, and Mary is the greatest model of the interior life. Besides, the interior life requires more helps and safeguards because of the dangers it involves by reason of the very greatness of its aims, and so it requires the most powerful Protectress.

From what has been said it will be understood why the Third Order is described as "an association of persons living in the world." Moreover, it is stated to be "an association of those who desire to aim at Christian perfection in a way most suitable to their state of life." All persons are given, not merely the counsel, but the command to be perfect by our loving Saviour Himself: "Be you perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. v. 48). Amidst the distractions of the world many are inclined to overlook this precept, and so those desirous of fulfilling it are well advised in binding themselves down to a rule which requires in its practice more than is undertaken by Catholics generally and which at the same time does not interfere with the legitimate demands of their state of life.

It is added "according to the spirit of the Order of Discalced Carmelites." We have mentioned that the Carmelite Order is the special guardian of the interior life. The history of the Discalced Reform proves this claim very conclusively. The reform was initiated by St. Teresa of Jesus and helped forward by St. John of the Cross. These two saints animate the spirit of the Discalced Carmelites. St. Teresa of Jesus is usually acknowledged as the great saint and teacher of prayer. From her own experiences she has described the science and art of prayer in a manner which gives her the undisputed title of Mistress of Prayer and the Interior Life, as Saint Pius X assures us (Apostolic Letter, 7th March, 1914). St. John of the Cross teaches in the most masterly way everything that is required to attain the spirit of prayer and the most intimate union with God. The example and teaching of these two great saints leave nothing to be desired in giving all the help required for the most interior life. It is according to the spirit of these two great saints that Carmelite Tertiaries are to regulate their lives. We shall have occasion frequently to refer to them again.

It is stated that the Tertiaries are to be "under the direction of the Order of Discalced Carmelites." This is a consequence of what has been written in the preceding paragraph. Tertiaries who are joined in a congregation are at least under the direction of the Order to the extent that the Director, if not a Discalced Carmelite, must be appointed by a Superior of the Order (Rule n. 94). In the case of isolated Tertiaries, they must be received and admitted to the Profession by a member of the Order or by a priest delegated by a Superior of the Order. More¬over, where it is possible it is advisable that Tertiaries have as their confessors or directors those who are members of the Order or who understand its spirit, so that they themselves may more readily acquire the spirit of the rule they have embraced.

Lastly, the members of the association regulate their lives "in imitation of the many saints whose virtues have adorned her (the august Queen of Carmel's) venerable Order." The Order of Carmel has given very many great saints to the Church. In pre-Christian times the study of the lives of the two Prophets of Carmel, St. Elias and St. Eliseus, will edify and show us how the spirit of Carmel was even then put into practice. In Christian times we have the lives of St. Angelus, St. Albert, St. Peter¬ Thomas, St. Andrew Corsini and very many others to consider. In more recent times we have the very many holy persons who have followed in the footsteps of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross, and especially we have to consider the life and virtues of their most renowned daughter, St. Teresa of the Child Jesus.

5 Jun 2010

'God is Love' by Fr. Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus OCD

The teaching of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus was based on this central experience. The greatest grace of her life was her understanding of Mercy. The theology she elaborated flowed from a personal insight, something which came naturally to her. At times she experienced suffering so intense that she said, "When I am in heaven, if I have been mistaken about this, I will come and let you know. But in the depths of her being she was certain. Her entire teaching flowed from this light in the next talk I shall try to enlarge on this, but now I should like to show how this doctrine has changed our spirituality, so to say. She was not the only one, there had been other messages of Love through the ages, but I believe that Thérèse's is still the most important one from a theological and spiritual point of view.

In the years following her death Pius X recommended frequent Communion, which points us toward positive holiness. The holiness and asceticism of the 19th century were negative: people sought above all to purify themselves and make reparation to God. The characteristic note of spirituality in our times is the positive aspect of love which has become a part of our way of life. This is why it succeeds. In each era we follow the grace and light God gives us. Formerly the stress was more on sacrifice; today it is on presence and contact. There was a grandeur about former times, but people did not have the same understanding of Love and Mercy. Their spirituality did not appeal to the majority, since few were strong enough to live by it. Now, on the other hand, as the concept of divine Mercy has been brought to the fore, it has been
a powerful influence in opening up the mystical life to the many.

Two periods can be distinguished here. I believe St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus is the herald of the new one. She has exemplified and modernized, in a certain sense, the spirituality of St. Paul, who said, "Through the grace of God I am what I am, and the grace he gave me has not been without result"

Thérèse's greatness lay in her discovery of Mercy. On one occasion she said to her infirmarian, "You know well that you are taking care of a little saint." They cut her finger nails. 'Keep them,' she said, "some day someone will treasure them." She also remarked: 'They say I have virtue but that isn't true; they are mistaken. I do not have virtue. God gives me what I need at each instant. I have only what I need for the present moment. These paradoxes are extraordinary and disconcerting. There is a certain quality of greatness in St. Thérèse. I assure you that I have studied her in depth for forty years and her greatness has often overwhelmed me. She has renewed our understanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as we see them operating in her contemplation. It harmonises with the teaching of St. Thomas. It is not a matter of sentimentality or of novelties. It is a rediscovery, an illustration of the traditional doctrine. I believe this is one of the great graces granted to our times.

In her surroundings, Thérèse was unique. I have known Mother Agnes since 1927. I loved and revered her deeply. She was a very holy soul, and the same was true of Sister Genevieve. But St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus was a giant in comparison and far surpassed them. She is the only one, we could say, to have read and perfectly understood St. John of the Cross. In spite of her superior intelligence and spiritual knowledge, however, she showed perfect submission - a sure proof that her understanding was indeed supernatural.

To be practical, we should exploit this theological knowledge of God, of Mercy. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus has left her mark on our times. She has, so to say, popularized contemplation and sanctity itself.

26 May 2010

Carmelite Spirituality - Part 2 by Fr Paul of the Cross OCD

Primacy of the contemplative spirit.

A direct and intimate experience with God is the basis of Carmel spirituality. Therefore, before any Rule, and in order that the Rule may be lived when it is formulated, a contemplative spirit and a deep sense of God are required of those who wish to lead the life of Carmel.

Of one who understands how to stay before God, no special activity, no special practical disposition is required. While, on the contrary, this sense of God, this thirst to remain in His presence does not belong to that category of realities that a Rule or a technique can call into being. Nor can they be developed in any way ascertainable by the sense. They must exist prior to the realization of a contemplative religious life. God Himself has placed them in the soul's very centre and ceaselessly maintains them by means of His grace and His Holy Spirit.

This enables us to understand how, although it is not an institution in the western meaning of the term but only a place for the election of a spiritual reality, Carmel has long been able to exist in a free, spontaneous, elementary way and to subsist through the sheer power of its "spirit".

This primacy of "spirit", necessary in every religious institute seems even more necessary in Carmel.

No exterior activity, whatever be its form, not even fidelity to the Rule, jealously guarded though this must be, can ever take the place of what ought to be the soul of Carmel, we mean the divine current that reaches the depths of man's being and impels the Carmelite to return constantly to his centre.

This search for God, so essential and so secret, leads of itself to simplicity and spiritual poverty. Instinctively the soul seeking God longs to be disencumbered, to be delivered from all things spiritual and material, in order to think of God alone, to be freed from things of the flesh in order to attain to life in the spirit, and to become altogether spiritual.

An idea like this necessarily leads to a spiritual conception of religious life. In fact, nowhere as much as in Carmel must life and observances be vivified by the spirit.

That is why a religious as familiar with the origins of Carmel as John of Saint-Samson could write in "De la perfection et decadence de la vie religieuse":
"I say that in the days of these first patriarchs and founders, religious life (at Carmel) was a body strongly and excellently animated by spirit, or rather it was all spirit, and all fervent spirit."

In fact the ideal of Carmel was always, according to the expression of this same author in "Le vrai esprit du Carmel," "to live in a state of great purity... and to enter into God with all one's strength".

It is obvious that John of Saint-Samson here refers to the "Institution des premiers moines," a text highly representative of the spirit of Carmel and of its oldest and purest mystical traditions. In it we read these lines in which the author seeks to describe the life of the first hermits of Carmel.

"This life has a double end. The first is ours as the result of our virtuous work and effort, divine grace aiding us. It consists in offering God a holy heart, freed from all stain of actual sin. We attain this end when we are perfect and in Carith (which means ' hidden in charity ')...The second end of this life is communicated to us as God's pure gift. I mean that not only after death but here in this mortal life we can in some way in our hearts taste and experience in spirit the power of the divine presence and the sweetness of heavenly glory. This is called drinking from
the torrent of divine pleasure."

At Carmel, purity of heart is never disassociated from delight in things divine. The illusion most to be dreaded has always been to aspire to the highest gifts while disdaining or underestimating the necessary publications. There is another and equally dangerous snare: to try to live a life of high perfection for its own sake and not to aspire to receive the communication of divine life. Carmelite spirituality consists of a supernatural balance which is only possible where there is habitual recourse to the spirit with humility of heart. Although Carmel can see the weakness of its children without astonishment or pessimism, and because it
counts on the abundance of divine mercy to remain undisturbed, it has no pity for the slightest shadow that soils the soul. A man who voluntarily harbors some vain attachment in his heart is not a spiritual man. But of what price is purity without spiritual fruitfulness? A detachment in which there is no love?

In fact theological primacy makes it impossible for the Carmelite soul to deviate in his pursuit of his double goal. If he aspires to love with the love of God Himself, it is because he is strong in his hope, resolute in his faith, docile in all things to the invitations of the Spirit; it is because he depends on God alone.

19 May 2010

Mother Mary of Jesus on Modernism

This passage shows well the attitude of Mother Mary of Jesus and we would do well to adopt it ourselves to keep us free from this and all heresy -

Another service which she rendered this priest was to point the dangers of modernism, long before its condemnation. He had sent her some books of Loisy’s [a renowned modernist author]. Her comment is characteristic: ‘I only gave a glance at Abbe Loisy — it is just what I knew it was, most terrible. Oh! the cure to all these sins and heresies and horrors would be the surrender of our will and being to God. There is only our mind fit to learn and understand the right and the wrong, the truth of God and the infinite beauty of supernatural faith’.

Taken from 'In the Silence of Mary'. Published by Notting Hill Carmel 1964.

13 May 2010

The Discalced Friars by Fr Benedict Zimmerman

This is a brief description of the life of a Discalced Carmelite Friar as it was lived according to the traditional Rule. You will find it very edifying -

Shortly before midnight the brethren rise and repair to the choir, where at the twelfth stroke of the hour they continue Matins according to the Roman rite. The singing is not plain chant, as in the monasteries of the Benedictine, Trappist or Carthusian Orders, but a simple kind of monotone, which, however, is not devoid of solemnity. Matins last about an hour and a quarter, followed by a short meditation before the Blessed Sacrament. The Midnight Office is of great importance; at a time when the world is forgetful of God, or even grievously offending His majesty, the Church, through her various Religious Orders, presents herself in supplication before His throne, praising His glorious name, and expiating for the world’s sinfulness.

About 2 a.m. the monks are back in their cells to take some repose: not an easy thing to do on cold winter nights. They rise again before five to chant Prime and Terce and make an hour’s meditation which is followed by Mass. Each priest says low Mass at the time and the altar appointed by the Prior; on Sundays and feasts there is sing Mass. Allowing about an hour for Mass, with preparation and thanksgiving, there remain three hours to be spent in work. Each member of the Community has his special offices or duties; some have charge of the household and its administration, others the care of the library; others, again are employed in the sacred ministry, hearing confessions and preaching the Word of God. Thus the difficulty is not how to find work, but rather how to do it all in such a short time.

The true home of the monk is his cell. This is about twelve foot long by ten in width. Its furniture is of the simplest kind; the bed consists of a board, six feet by two and a half or three feet, resting on trestles, and covered with some blankets and a pillow. There is a writing table, with shelves for books, and a chair. On the walls are a cross and some pious pictures.

At half past ten Sext and None are recited in choir, followed at eleven by dinner. This is the first, and during the greater part of the year the only, meal. Those, however, who are unable to keep such a long fast can easily obtain permission to take a cup of coffee after Mass. Dinner consists of vegetables, fish and eggs, with cheese and fruit. Meat is only given to the sick and infirm, and these have a special place in refectory; even visitors and guests are bound to the abstinence as long as they remain in the monastery, unless, indeed, they are in delicate health themselves.

After dinner there is an hour’s recreation in common, but during the rest of the day silence is strictly enjoined. At two o’clock Vespers are chanted, frequently followed by the Office of the Dead. The afternoon is devoted to work, only interrupted by an hour’s meditation. In the evening there is a second meal, followed by a short recreation in summer, but in winter there is only a small collation. Compline and Night Prayers having been said, the Religious retire to their cells at about half past seven.


10 May 2010

Discalced Carmelite Third Order

One of the great traditions of the Discalced Carmelite Order was its Third Order for the laity[the First Order was the Friars and the Second Order the Nuns]which is reputed to be, among all the Third Orders, the closest to the religious life as you will read.

Here follows a brief explanation of the spirit and life of the Third Order according to the traditional Rule
-

Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St Teresa of Jesus
Many have heard of this Third Order but know little about it. The Way of Perfection for the Laity by Fr Kevin ODC is an excellent book which expounds the Rule of the Third Order. It tells us that that the ideal is ‘the union of the soul and God, a union more intimate than that of window and the ray, of the coal and the fire. Wondrous means: surrender of the soul to the action of God by prayer, by ‘holy meditations and contemplations,’ in a word, Love and its pursuit and its pursuit, those are the spiritual arms of the Order of Carmel. Its motto is that of St Paul, ‘Ambulate in dilectione’ (walk in love). The child of Carmel ‘knows only one means to reach perfection . . . Love’; nothing troubles him, nothing affrights him — nothing is wanting to him. God alone is sufficient for him. Following the beautiful programme of Sr Elizabeth of the Trinity, his life must be a continual communion, ‘he awakes in Love — the whole day is lived in Love in doing the will of Good God — then, when evening comes after a dialogue of love which has never ceased in his heart, surrendering to the fire of love which consumes all his faults and infidelities, he sleeps again in love’ under the gaze of Our Lady, the sweetness and glory of Carmel.’

The rule of the Discalced Carmelite Third Order is a most suitable form of life to attain this end. Of all Tertiary rules it is the nearest approach to the religious life, and although the Tertiaries of other Orders are bound to seek perfection of the Christian life, towards this end there is a definiteness and helpfulness in the Discalced Carmelite Third Order which is lacking in others. For that very reason the obligations are greater. The whole goal of the Carmelite rule is to cause people to lead interior lives, in order to foster the interior spirit, much time is given to prayer. The end, of course, is for our life to become a constant prayer. This requires retirement, of course, the Carmelite nuns are strictly contemplative and enclosed – the Tertiaries are not. Nevertheless, the tertiaries also are to be isolated from the world as far as possible. In all conversation etc., the objective must be the sanctification of the other person. Unfortunately, the value of this type of life hidden from the world is rarely understood and even more rarely appreciated. Certainly, a Carmelite Tertiary must be careful not to neglect their duties of state – in fact; tertiaries must make every effort to be a model in performing their duties. The call of perfection is for all. Therefore, Our Lord’s demand for us not to be “of the world” applies to each and every one of us.

A summary of the obligations – The tertiary when received into the Discalced Carmelite Third Order will receive a brown scapular composed of two equal parts of 10 inches in length and 7 inches in width. It is to be worn at all times. The new novice will also be given a religious name at this time.A period of at least one year and one day must elapse, before the novitiate ends and the Profession ceremony takes place. The novice will at this time make a vow of Chastity and Obedience. Before Profession, the novice will make a retreat or other pious practices according to the advice of the Spiritual Director of the Third Order. It is essential that a prayerful study of the Third Order Rule is undertaken by each novice, so that they can learn the spirit, the distinctive character of the Third Order, and so become deeply convinced of the sublimity of their vocation and infused with an abiding Marian love.’

· The tertiary who is able to read will unless prevented by some reasonable cause, recite daily the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

· Each day, they will spend a half an hour in meditation. Either a quarter of an hour in the morning and a quarter of an hour in the evening, or all at one time.

· Each Wednesday, the tertiary will abstain from meat, as also the Saturdays of Advent.

· Every day, if possible, the tertiary will hear Holy Mass. He or she will receive Holy Communion regularly, at least once a week.

· Also, on the First Friday, and the principal feasts of Our Lord and Our Lady, as well as the feast of the founders and patrons of our Order.

· On the anniversary of their Profession in the Third Order of Mount Carmel.

· The Renewal of vows – the 6th of January (the Epiphany) and 14th September (The Exaltation of the Holy Cross)

· When they learn that any member of the Third Order is dangerously ill or has died.

· Once a month they will, is possible, set apart a day of recollection, and once a year, they will make the Spiritual Exercises.

· All tertiaries should never fail to make the daily examination of conscience with due care and contrition for their sins.

· Tertiaries should be exact in the observance of the Fast and abstinence prescribed by the Church, and never seek to be dispensed with grave and sufficient cause. Besides the Fast days prescribed by the Church, they shall fast using the foods and condiments permitted by the Church on ordinary fast days in their respective countries on the vigils of the following feasts:- Corpus Christi; Our Holy Father, St. John of the Cross; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; Immaculate Conception and Our Holy Mother, St. Teresa

· They will abstain from meat, besides the days prescribed by the Church on the vigils of the following feasts: The Purification; Our Holy Father, St. Elias; The Annunciation; The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary; The Visitation; The feast of All saints of the Carmelite Order(14th November 2nd Class feast – those saints who have not as yet been canonized)

· On the 15th November, the feast of All Souls of the Carmelite Order, the tertiaries will receive Holy Communion and recite the Office for the departed members

9 May 2010

Carmelite Spirituality - Part 1 by Fr Paul Marie of the Cross OCD

The Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel counts among its members many mystics and many saints, its roots are plunged deep in the Old Testament, its mission is specifically spiritual and yet at no time in the past does it seem to have made any special effort to define its spirituality. Does this not mean that this present work is temerarious?

It is true that the members of the "Carmelite family" feel closely united to one another by "a characteristic and permanent way of seeing, feeling,willing".[1] It is also true that Carmel possesses texts that are specially representative of its traditions and spirit but these texts are rather like reminders or manifestations than sources.

To characterize the spirituality of Carmel is all the more difficult because unlike other religious families Carmel has, in the strict sense of the word, no founder who trained it or gave it a rule. As a matter of fact no rule was written until the hermits of Mount Carmel requested one. And this was but the codification of the form of life that these men had spontaneously adopted.

Where are the sources of Carmel's spirit to be found and how can that spirit be acquired?

To answer these questions, two things are necessary. First, we must understand the nature of this spirit which came down from heaven upon the sons of the prophets dwelling century after century on the slopes of the holy mountain; because without this spirit Carmel would never have started and would never have lasted. We must also grasp the extraordinary signs of this spirit that are evident in those who possess it and give it full expression.

It will be seen that Carmelite spirituality is based only in part on documents. It is above all spirit and life. So it follows that by examining its origins, searching the Rule, the lives and writings of the Order's great saints that the soul of Carmel is revealed and, at the same time, Carmelite spirituality is made manifest.



I. THE SOURCES


Elias the prophet.

While it is certain that "schools of prophets " were established on Mount Carmel in the footsteps of Elias and Eliseus, it is impossible to discover how and when these schools became permanent institutions. Despite the mystery of these beginnings Carmel has always claimed Elias as its own and has seen in him one who inaugurated the eremitic and prophetic life which is its characteristic.

This is not to say that Elias introduced within the Old Testament frame of reference a special spirit, a new doctrine, a personal way. On the contrary, Elias is typical of the just men and the prophets who lived under the Old Covenant. But his disciples remembered this distinguishing note about him: He is the man whom the Spirit of Yahweh led into deep solitude and who, drawing waters from the "torrent of Carith ", drank from the rivers of living water and tasted, in contemplation, pleasures that
are divine. Therefore, if it is in documents that we wish to find the spirit of Carmel it is to the chapters in the books of Kings dealing with this prophet that we must go.

Here in fact rings out that fundamental note which will re-echo down the centuries, not only in the rocky solitudes of Mount Carmel but throughout the whole history of the order. In Elias, Carmel sees itself as in a mirror. His eremitic and prophetic life expresses its own most intimate ideal. In studying the life of Elias, Carmel is aware of a growing thirst for contemplation. It perceives its deep kinship with this man who "stood in the presence of the living God". If it shares his weaknesses and his anguish, it also knows his faith in God and his zeal for the "Yahweh of armies" and it has tasted the same delights of a life hidden in God which the prophet also experienced. When it discovers in the light of the inspired word that Elias, "in the strength he drew from the divine food,walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God", it is not in the least surprised. How could the prophet not have been drawn to this spot where that tremendous event of the religious history of mankind had taken place several centuries earlier: God's revelation to Moses.

There, in the bleak wastes of Sinai, we read in the book of Exodus that Moses, silent and alone, perceived Yahweh's mysterious presence in the light of fiery flames that burned the bush without consuming it (Ex. 3:2). There, were revealed to him the incommunicable Name, the divine transcendence and benevolence. There, Moses understood that he must make known to those entrusted to him what he had been allowed to contemplate. "Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you". (Ex. 3: 14).

How could the father of contemplative life not have been drawn to this mountain where God spoke to Moses "as a man is wont to speak to his friend" (Ex. 33: 11), where man dared address this prayer to God: "show me Thy glory" (Ex. 3 3: 1 8)? How could he have failed to see that all the elements essential to contemplation were already contained in the scene on Horeb? So we may say that having found its model in Elias, the Carmelite advances with him toward the very origin of true contemplative life. Or, it might be more exact to say that having found the contemplative experience in its origin, carried by Elias to the highest degree of
purity, detachment and fulfillment, the Carmelite, wishing to renew this experience, feels obliged to recreate in his soul the climate in which this life grew: the desert with its spiritual solitude and silence; and he, in his turn feels constrained to undertake this persevering march toward the mountain of God where fire burns but does not consume.

Carmelite spirituality in every century needs to breathe the air of these high places if it is to live; and it needs a form of life sufficiently recollected to permit the soul to perceive the divine presence "in the sound of a gentle breeze" (Cf. 3 Kgs. 19: 12). In this perpetual return to solitude and recollection, this nostalgic call to detachment: "I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness; and I will speak to her heart" (OS. 2: 14), the Carmelite finds the very soul of his vocation.

So he takes as guides those who have advanced along the paths of divine union and have tasted the sweetness of heavenly things; and he prays with Eliseus to his father Elias to grant him a double part of his spirit (4 Kgs. 2: 9).

Can we describe this spirit?

In spite of the mystery of its beginnings, on this point no hesitation is possible. This spirit consists essentially in a longing for union with God.

It will be objected that all spiritual men know this longing. This is true. Nevertheless at Carmel this aspiration has a quality of immediacy, an insistence on prompt realization that distinguishes the Order's religious attitude.[2] Carmel makes contemplation its proper end and to attain this end it practices absolute detachment in relation to all demands, or at least to all temporal contingencies. Eminently theocentric, Carmel refers itself wholly to the living God: "As the Lord liveth the God of Israel, in whose sight I stand" (3 Kgs. 17: 1).

From the earliest ages union with God has been its "raison d'etre" and its soul. No doubt it was "the anticipated dawn of the Savior's redemptive grace"[3] that made this possible. No doubt, too, that it has benefited by the progress and development of revelation down the centuries. Nevertheless at Carmel from the beginning, union with God has been and continues to be central.

Characterized by an awareness of the presence within man's heart of the very being of God, the spirit of Carmel also includes a sense of the sacred and a thirst for things divine. Progress in the experience of God only serves to deepen and develop this basic and truly essential element. Without it neither the wise nor the simple could enter into and intensify their relations with God, No matter how individual is this spirit and with what difficulty it is analyzed, this spirit is to be identified with the most authentic mysticism. At Carmel nothing imitative or esoteric is to be found and Carmelite tradition is singularly sober as to the content of spiritual
experiences though their presence is frequently attested. Always objective, it merely affirms the possibility and the reality of direct contact with God and points out the necessity, if this is to be attained, of recourse to a particular kind of life--the eremitic life.

It assigns no date to its first manifestations but instead states forcefully that, granted certain conditions, it is possible for man truly to live the divine life. For this it suffices for him to realize in himself the climate of the original desert, and after withdrawing into this interior solitude, "to hold himself in the presence of the living God". Than the light of truth will come to purify, enlighten and enkindle his soul.

Foundations are thus laid for a personal experience of God and the intimate relations that a creature may have with Him. Going back through the ages Carmel will never hesitate to recognize itself in the first hermit whom the Bible describes for us and to model its life on that of men vowed to the contemplation of divine things in silence and solitude.

1. JEROME DE LA MERE DE DIEU, O.C.D. quoting Costa Rosetti, S.J. in "La
doctrine du venerable frere Jean de S. Samson", "La vie Spirituelle,"
1925, p. 32, n. 1.
 
2. Saint John of the Cross gives a startling confirmation of this fact
when he recalls it in the very title of "The Ascent of Carmel." He write:
"The Ascent of Mount Carmel shows how: soul can prepare to arrive promptly
at divine union..."

8 May 2010

A very short biography

Madeleine Dupont was born in France, in 1851, and entered the Carmel of the Incarnation in Paris in 1872, taking the name of Sr Mary of Jesus. She came to England at the foundation of Notting Hill Carmel in 1878. Her early years in Carmel were marked by her profound experience of contemplative prayer and union with God. This bore abundant fruit, especially from the time she was nominated Prioress in 1883. Due to unusual circumstances she remained Prioress till her death in 1942 aged 91. She saw her vocation as one of "giving God to souls", and she became a loved and trusted spiritual guide. One cannot measure spiritual fecundity by numbers, nevertheless it is remarkable that during her nearly 60 years as Prioress, she gave the religious habit to 194 postulants, and of these, she prepared 148 novices for profession. With such an abundance of vocations at that period she was able to answer requests from bishops in various parts of the country, and founded 33 Carmels throughout Britain between the years 1907 - 1938. For her, this was simply "doing our Lady's work" and her simple trust in the Mother of God was at the heart of her endeavors.

Biography: In the Silence of Mary (1964) published privately at Notting Hill Carmel